The Enforcer (16 page)

Kelly also loved animals and did some volunteer work at the local animal shelter. She told Lacey that she would take her there to help sometime if she wanted. Kelly spent time at the shelter when the boys were traveling. It helped fill her weekends when Keith wasn’t home. Lacey told Kelly that she would be watching Jody’s pup Izzy when he was away and invited Kelly to come to his house so she could play with Izzy, too. It looked like Lacey had just made a new friend.

Looking around, Lacey saw that all of these people were like a family. They were all laughing together and helping each other’s kids on the ice. When someone fell down, someone else was there to help them get up. It was very satisfying watching these people. She enjoyed seeing them interact with each other. Lacey decided to take a seat in the player’s box and rest her feet a bit while she continued to people watch.

While she was sitting there relaxing, Heidi (who she found out was defenseman Matt Johnson’s girlfriend) came over and hooked an iPod into the PA system. She introduced herself to Lacey and said, “Wanna see the boys have some fun?” Lacey just smiled as Michael Jackson’s
Billie Jean
came out of the speakers, and she saw what Heidi was talking about.

Some of the guys started dancing, Jody being one of them. They all looked ridiculous. Those not dancing stood at the boards to give the guys the ice. Keith grabbed a stick that was on the bench next to Lacey and twirled Matt around, using it as a big hook. Jody did a pirouette, but fell on his ass. That was when Lacey lost it. She was laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes.
This
was the kind of fun she was missing.
This
was what she wanted back in her life. A good group of friends who knew how to cut loose and have a good time.

Jody saw Lacey laughing at him and skated over to the bench. Pulling her up, he dragged her back out onto the ice. “Come on Lace, dance with me.” There was no way she could dance with him; she could barely stay upright! “Funny, you know very well that I can’t do that. Go dance with Ian. He looks like he needs a partner.” Jody smiled at her, and her heart hitched a little. She was in dangerous territory if Jody kept this up. He was so cute and sweet. “I’d rather just stand here not even moving with you than do just about anything else.”

Keith skated by and said, “Oh for God’s sake, just kiss her already. You two are disgusting the way you make eyes at each other.” Punching Jody on the arm, he said, “I’ll show you how it’s done, Chief.” Keith skated over to Kelly, took her in his arms and bent her backwards, while he kissed her senseless amid cheers from the others.

Even though it was a hot kiss, Lacey knew if Jody tried that she’d be lying on the ice … again. “Don’t even think about it. I’m already cold from lying on the ice too much today.” Jody put his arm around her and led her off the ice. “Poor Lace. Let’s go get you warmed up.”

Jody took her upstairs to the team’s break room, snagging Izzy along the way. There wasn’t a whole lot to it – just some tables with benches attached to them, like picnic tables and a couple of vending machines. A small kitchenette was off to the side with a refrigerator and a small stove/oven combination. Izzy went out the door and across the hallway to investigate the workout room. Jody watched her go and informed Lacey that Izzy liked to look at herself in the mirrors that lined the back wall.

Lacey was sitting at one of the tables straddling the bench when Jody joined her with a cup of hot chocolate from the vending machine. He set it down in front of her and then sat down facing her. Reaching over, he pulled her legs over his and put his hands around her waist to pull her in tight. Lacey locked her legs around his hips. They fit together like matching puzzle pieces.

“You know what I’m going to do now, right?” Oh, she hoped she did. She licked her lips and met him halfway. They were making out like they couldn’t get enough of each other when Vlad walked in.

“Hey, knock that off. No one wants to see that shit.” Vlad walked over and took Lacey’s hot chocolate. “I love this stuff.” He sat down on the other side of the table and sighed.

“What’s up Vlad? You here to get a workout in?” Jody was not all that pleased that Vlad came in when he did. He was hoping to at least get to cop a feel. And with how cold Lacey was, her nipples were nice and hard. He’d love nothing more that to lock his lips around them and warm them up for her. God, he had to get her in bed again. And this time he’d keep her there for hours.

“Nah. Just bored or lonely. Lonely, bored, take your pick.” The weeks right before training camp started were an adjustment for some of the guys. Vlad went home to the Ukraine after the season ended to visit his family. He liked to be back a month or so early so that he could concentrate on getting back into hockey shape; at the same time though, he got lonely. All of his family lived in the Ukraine, and there were only so many hours a day that a guy could work out. Then what was he supposed to do? Vlad did have the guys over a lot, but he was just missing something. He figured that something was the very something that he couldn’t have.

“Well I was just going to see if Lacey wanted to head over to the pub with me. A bunch of us were talking about going there to get something to eat. Wanna go?” His question was aimed at both Lacey and Vlad.

Lacey wanted to go home first and get changed into something more summery since it was still so warm. Vlad was just about to decline when Lacey said, “I’d like to see if Zoe wants to go, too, if you don’t mind.” Vlad immediately perked up. “Count me in. What time are you all going over?”

“I’ll take Lacey home and then go drop Izzy off. We’ll be there in about an hour or so I guess.” Jody would have preferred to just take Lacey somewhere so he could try getting her naked, but he felt bad for Vlad so he decided on the pub route. Besides that, it would be nice to take Lacey out. And by the end of the night, he was going to have their first real date nailed down. He’d been thinking about it all week. After she agreed to go out with him, he’d start putting his plans in motion.

Jody pulled up to Zoe’s house and got out of the truck to walk Lacey to the door. “I’ll be back in about half an hour. Is that okay?” He wanted to touch her again, but kept some space between them. He was struggling with the whole ‘don’t rush things with Lacey’ idea, so he put his hands behind his back. “That sounds good. I’ll go get changed and see if Zoe wants to go.” Lacey peeked around Jody and yelled “Bye pretty girl,” to Izzy who gave her an appreciative bark. Then she gave Jody a quick peck on the cheek and went into the house. You would have thought she just told him she’d marry him, he was so happy.
Her
kissing
him
was a good sign in his book.

The pub was packed as was expected for a Saturday night. Speaking of things that were expected, Jody was having a hard time keeping his hands to himself. Really, if he thought about it, it was Lacey’s fault. She was just too sexy. She had ditched her jeans and sweater in favor of a pair of those yoga pants and a V-neck t-shirt.

Yoga pants had to have been invented by a man – a brilliant, gifted man. They hugged a girl’s curves like a second skin and because they did, Jody suspected that a lot of the girls wore a thong, or better yet, went without panties. As Jody stood there staring at Lacey’s ass looking for panty lines, Zoe commandeered a small table by the bar. Jody gestured for Lacey to walk in front of him so he could enjoy the view as long as possible.

Lacey and Jody sat on the bench together while Zoe sat on one of the chairs across from them. While they waited for a waitress, Jody idly started rubbing Lacey’s thigh under the table. At his first touch, she gave a start. She was going to remove his hand but decided first to see what else he would do. She wasn’t against a little petting under the table.

She’s going to be the death of me,
Jody thought. Since he didn’t think he should suffer alone, he continued his quest up and down Lacey’s leg. On each up stroke, he got closer and closer to one of his favorite parts of her that he was dying to further explore. He wanted to bury himself inside her so badly that he couldn’t think straight. Being so close to her was torturous. When he finally did get Lacey naked beneath him – and he would – it was going to be earth shattering for him. If he did everything right, it would be for her, too.

Zoe’s phone rang. She looked at the number with a look of concern. “I have to take this. Just order me a beer, Lace.” She got up and went outside to speak to the caller.

Lacey had to put a stop to Jody’s wandering hand. He was driving her mad, and she was either going to make him stop or tell him to throw her up on the table and have at it. She reached under the table and grabbed Jody’s hand. “You have to stop that; you’re driving me crazy.”

“Yeah well, that’s kinda the idea.” He gave her his trademark cocky grin and put her hand on his thigh – his extreme upper thigh. Lacey let out a little squeak and excused herself. “I’m going to run to the ladies room, and when I get back, you’re going to behave yourself.”

Lacey got up and unbeknownst to her, Jody did too. He gave up on the idea of not rushing her. She would tell him to back off if he pushed her too fast. He wasn’t strong enough to keep his hands off of her so he followed her down the hallway, and grabbed her right before she went into the bathroom. “If I have to behave myself when you get back, you have to give me a reward beforehand.” He backed her up against the wall until there wasn’t an inch between them. Not even giving her a second to respond, his lips covered hers.

Lacey had no interest in pretending she didn’t want to be kissing Jody again. She was all in. Parting her lips in invitation, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed herself in even closer. He responded immediately by pushing his erection against her at the junction of her thighs. He tore his lips from hers and ran them down her neck. “Jesus Lace, nothing tastes as good as you. Come home with me tonight, I want, no, I
need
to be inside you. Please.”

Lacey ran her hand down to cup Jody through his jeans. “Yes, God yes, I’ll come home with you. Can we leave now?”

“Hell yeah. Let’s go.” Jody grabbed her hand and just about ran back out to their table. When they got there, they discovered that their table was occupied by others now, and Zoe was nowhere in sight.

They went outside to see if Zoe was still talking on the phone. She was just getting ready to hang up when she said, “Wait a sec Aidan, Lacey just came out.” Aidan, Zoe’s brother, had moved to San Diego when Zoe did. They were pretty tight. Covering the phone up, Zoe told her, “Aidan broke up with his boyfriend. He’s a mess, and of course, he wants you.” Looking at Jody apologetically, Lacey took the phone.

“Hi hun. I’m so sorry.” Lacey listened for a while looking sympathetic. “Well, he’s a rat bastard, and he doesn’t deserve you.” Some more listening and then with a disappointing look at Jody she said, “Of course you can come stay with us tonight. I won’t let Zoe psychoanalyze you, I promise. Ben & Jerry’s all around.” Then Lacey laughed as she found out that Aidan was already waiting for them at the house. Winking at Zoe, Lacey said, “We’ll be home in about ten minutes. Chin up, Kid, we’ll get through this.”

Jody understood that her friend needed her but he was seriously disappointed. He was so close to Valhalla! Jody shot a quick text off to Vlad telling him that they weren’t going to be at the pub. When they got back to Zoe’s house, there was an extremely attractive man sitting on the front steps. He didn’t look gay, but what did gay look like anyway? Aidan was buff, but not overly so. His silky hair hung down just past his shoulders. He was dressed casually in everyday jeans and a t-shirt. Jody wasn’t all that comfortable leaving Lacey with him, even though he was apparently not interested in the female sex.

Aidan stood up when Lacey and Zoe got out of the truck and gave Jody ‘the eye.’ It was the eye men gave other men to say ‘don’t mess with my family or my woman.’ He gave Zoe a hug and then Lacey. He looked Lacey up and down and patted her rear. “Lacey, Lacey, you are looking fine, Sweetheart! Girl, you are all curves, aren’t you?”

Gay or not, Jody didn’t like his hands on her. Aidan noticed and said to Jody, “Calm down man. Just because I have no interest in sampling the goods, doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the package. And my, Lacey is one hot package!” Aidan stuck his hand out and said, “Aidan Millis, Zoe’s brother, and you are?”

“Jody LaGrange,
enforcer
for the Scorpions.” He figured he’d just let this guy know that he could beat him to a pulp if he wanted to. Lacey poked Jody in the chest and said, “Play nice.”